Meet The 30 Under 30 Driving Europe's Media And Marketing Innovation

“There (was) no strong young voice to represent (Egypt’s) millennials and their thoughts globally, especially after the Arab spring,” Mostafa Amin told Forbes. So what did he and his business partner, Mohamed Khairat--millennial Egyptians, themselves--do? They founded Egyptian Streets, a digital publication that strives to address challenging issues--such as sexual harassment and the Muslim Brotherhood--from local perspectives by engaging the community. And people were interested; the site, which has a lifetime readership of 6 million unique viewers, is one of Egypt’s most widely read English news platforms, and Amin and Khairat are working on launching Refugee Streets and Lebanon Streets.

It is this kind of ingenuity and success in following through with their idea that landed Amin and Khairat a spot on 2018’s 30 Under 30 Europe Media and Marketing list. The list includes founders, executives and journalists from 12 different countries and was voted on by industry experts Arianna Huffington, the founder of Thrive Global, Charlotte Moore, the Director of Content at the BBC, and Emilie Tabor and Maddie Raedts, the cofounders of influencer marketing firm IMA.

Amin and Khairat, who are now based in Germany and Australia, respectively, aren’t the only ones on the list who venture outside of Europe for their work. Louise Callaghan, the winner of 2016’s British Press Award for Young Journalist of the year and the Sunday Times’ Middle East correspondent, has reported on the political coup in Turkey, on the detention of refugees during the migrant crisis in Lesbos and on the siege of Mosul.

Jamie Bolding founded Jungle Creations, a marketing firm that capitalizes off of viral videos.

Levon Bliss/Forbes

Charlie Northcott, a senior journalist at BBC News, gained a new level of success for his work covering the 2016 U.S. election on Instagram stories--a pioneering use of the medium that earned him a Webby Award. When not in North America, he has spent much of his career in Africa, and it was there he took up Pidgin, a language that combines English with various local African languages. In November 2016, Northcott acted as a launch producer for BBC Pidgin, the first international news site to serve West Africa’s 75 million Pidgin English speakers and the BBC’s largest expansion in decades. Embedded with a team of 15 Nigerian and Ghanaian journalists, Northcott helped train the team with the goal of making BBC Pidgin self-sustainable.

But, of course, content today is more than just newspapers and traditional articles--and Jungle Creations perfectly embodies the mix of content and advertising that has come to define new media.

Jamie Bolding founded his digital media and marketing company Jungle Creations in 2014, and since then, the videos it pumps out have become part of a new age in advertising. The marketing company boasts 50 million followers across its social media accounts, and clients like Disney and Apple pay big bucks to work with the viral-content-producing company. Averaging over 5 billion views each month, 2018 revenue is expected to exceed $35 million.

“I really just saw a massive opportunity there to capitalize on the growth of Facebook by providing video content,” Bolding says, adding that he got into the viral video space at just the right time. “There's an incredible opportunity to make money from filming just viral content on phones or hand-held cameras.”

Melding this digital-first approach to marketing and traditional advertising is Mobkoi, founded by French brothers Quentin and Guillaume Le Pape. Dedicated to mobile advertising, the eight-figure-revenue company has created marketing materials for over 100 brands, including Chanel and Nespresso, and partners with publishers like the BBC and Vogue to ensure brand safety.

Like Jungle Creations, marketing firm Good-Loop focuses on videos--though with a twist. Cofounder Amy Williams wanted to guarantee viewership while also helping the world. The result? An opt-in advertisement where a consumer can choose to watch a video advertisement and, in exchange, the advertiser gives 50% of the media money to a charity of the consumer’s choice.

It is this innovative spirit that earned Williams, as well as the other founders, creatives, journalists and personalities, a spot on our list, and it is also the innovative content that leads to engaging, entertaining and moving content.

"All you have to do is focus on satisfying your audience and give them what they want," says Bolding.

The Europe 30 Under 30 Entertainment list is edited by Madeline Berg and Leonard Schoenberger.